ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND Conjures More Episodes, Season 2 Possible

ABC has ordered more episodes of Once Upon A Time‘s Wonderland spinoff, which could receive a Season 2 order. Plus, new details on the show’s serialized format have come to light.

The network has bolstered the original 13-episode order with additional episodes, EW confirms. The exact number has yet to be decided but it fall somewhere between 13 and 22 episodes.

As previously reported, Once Upon A Time In Wonderland will tell a complete story, comprising a beginning, middle and end, centered on Alice (Sophie Lowe) and her quest for a love lost.

Unlike the flagship series which features a continually evolving mythology with central storylines that unfold across multiple seasons, Wonderland is a self-contained serial, with the entire first season storyline mapped out from start to finish. This should make for less filler and more killer.

Co-creator Edward Kitsis told EW:

“We really want to tell the story without having to worry about how to stretch it for five years. The upfront order will be it for the season. This is not meant to be a 22-episode season. Whatever it ends up being, we’ll have told a complete story, with a beginning, middle and end.”

In this context, Wonderland sits somewhere between the ‘limited’ (close-ended) series model and the serial-anthology format repopularized in recent years by American Horror Story. But unlike American Horror Story, which features a new self-contained storyline and characters each season, Wonderland could continue into a second season with the same characters.

As co-creator Adam Horowitz explains, much will boil down to the success of the first season:

“If the audience responds and people love these characters, the plan would be to bring it back next year and tell a whole new story”

It’s an interesting tweak on the dial that brings together the recent trend of shorter network seasons while allowing the show to very easily redefine itself each season.

With Wonderland taking place in the same universe as Once, this gives the show a lot of potential to be both relevant and accessible. It should be interesting to see how the experiment pans out.

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Other than that, they sound more ambitious about Wonderland than the main show, and that really worries me. Once has had the full attention of Horowitz and Kitsis for two seasons now, and look how atrocious it is. Now imagine what it’ll be like when they’re putting more effort into an unnecessary spin-off. Folks, I think it’s finally time to quit…